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A small business can benefit from online reviews because customers can read about the services or products you have to offer. Positive reviews can also be free promotion for your business as it usually covers the customers experience in dealing with your company. Negative reviews on the other hand, can be detrimental and can hurt your company’s image. However if you have outstanding customer service, you have absolutely nothing to worry about, as that is entirely up to you and your staff.

In this article I will provide you (the small business owner), three of my favorite social networks to utilize in promoting a business. It is definitely not too late to explore the abundance of social networks you can sign up for. Although results may take weeks and months of consistent work, you will find benefits in the long run. My top 3 social platforms are in no particular order.

1. Facebook

Facebook is the world’s largest and most popular social network. The website has roughly 864 billion daily active users. It is a platform that can benefit your small business. Facebook allows users to create not only personal accounts, but also offers options to create fan pages and business pages. By creating a business page for your business (online or offline), it makes Facebook a platform in which customers can scope out the services or products you have to offer. Viewers can also comment on posts or contact you privately for questions. This highly effective tool is underused and I highly recommend it. I understand that the majority of small business owners are on some sort of budget. However, Facebook is 100 percent free, so you have nothing to lose and all to gain.

Now that we are operating full steam ahead into 2015, it’s shocking to see that the majority of small businesses are still offline. What I mean by offline is that they have not marketed themselves on the internet. The world wide web is one of the most effective ways to promote a business and entrepreneurs overlook its usefulness.

Many businesses who only operate in their local municipalities forget that having an online presence is beneficial. I took the opportunity recently to conduct a study using 24 local businesses. I asked them whether or not they have a website, a Facebook account, a Twitter account, and an Instagram account. Unsurprisingly, only %33 (or 8 out of 24,) has a website. Although my study is not conclusive of small business owners globally, it’s a tale-telling sign that most are still running their establishments the old fashion way.